From the Stars: Return to the Colonies:Part 2 of 3
by Aussie
Summary: The Combined Earth and Colonial Fleet return to the Colonies twenty years after the attack to scavenge what they can of the Colonial Civilization, and to find out what happened to the Cylons. Part 2 of 3.


Authors Notes: This is the sequel to "From the Stars: Part 1 of 3: Salvation", and it is highly recommended that you read that first. This is part 2 of 3 and will be a big story.

Reply to reviews from Part 1 of this trilogy (Good for all to read):

Grayangle: I get what you're saying, but my story is going down the road that the Colonials are more advanced than us in almost all aspects of technology, or at least, they were. From what I've heard about the "Caprica" series, set 50 years before BSG TNS, they were much, much, much more advanced than what they're shown to be in BSGTNS, and this is because they didn't shy away from technology. You'll see what I mean as the story progresses.

I got this idea from the story "From the Dark End of the Tunnel" by "nevermore?" in which a much more advanced Earth finds the BSG fleet. They remark that the BSG fleet is primitive, from what one officer sees of the insides of the Galactica, but when the officer is taken to Cloud Nine and sees the artificial environment, it the officer is shocked because it takes advanced technology to create an indepentant, continuous ecosystem. In this universe, the Colonials have the ability to be much more advanced than they are – ie, they possess the technology (in files and prototypes etc etc etc on the Colonies), but they don't actually have working models of, because most technology was intentionally taken backwards because of the Cylons. This is the whole basis for this section of the story – it is this very advanced technology which they're going back to the colonies to scavenge for, hoping that some of it remains.

Here's the first chapter: More A/N at the end.

From the Stars

Return to the Colonies

Chapter 1

Dr. Anne Peterson – Environmental Officer and Lead Sensors Officer 

I was going over everything to make sure that all the navigational and sensor systems were in working order and performing to their best capacity. I knew that they would be, that I would have made sure the previous ten times I'd checked and adjusted them, but I couldn't help myself. I looked at the count-down clock which was situated in the Control Centre of the _Astral Dawn_ and saw that there was about ten minutes remaining until we jumped. I looked down at my console and could see that everything was primed and ready. We needed the ship to be at full capacity once we jumped into the gas cloud which was surrounding New Caprica. Commander Dualla had told me that the gas cloud surrounding the system made our sensors and DRADIS almost useless, and that the Cylons would probably have a better chance of seeing us, than we would of seeing them. Still though, we needed all the performance we could get.

"Five minutes until jump," I heard Commander Dualla say. "Systems Check."

"Sensors and DRADIS are green," I replied and listened to all the other section heads clearing their systems.

"Confirm that the Raptor and Huntress Squadrons are prepared for jump," Dualla ordered the communications officer. I had been waiting for this day ever since we got into space. Now, it was finally here and I couldn't believe that it was happening. I hated the fact that I hoped that we'd find nothing there at all, since then there'd be no risk of the Cylons being present, and we'd be much safer. When you thought about it that way, it didn't sound too good, but hoping that the couple of thousand people that the Colonials had left behind when they were last here had died was a horrible thing to think, and I couldn't help but feel guilty.

Major Margaret 'Racetrack' Edmondson – Huntress 005

I looked down at the timer which had been installed into the dashboard of the Huntress craft and noticed that there was five minutes remaining before we jumped.

"Feels just like the old days," I said to my co-pilot. I'd replaced his normal co-pilot just for this mission, as the commander wanted some Colonials to go on this mission.

"Yeah," he just replied. We were few and far between in the fleet, and everywhere else for that matter. I'd half been selected and half volunteered to fly in this mission, as I wanted to get out of the damn _Pegasus_ for a while. Command had also eyed me off to go on this mission, but hadn't said anything to me before I volunteered. Also, being the one who originally found New Caprica in the first place, I felt that I should be the one to find it again.

"Can you check my jump coordinates?" I asked him, following the procedure that I'd known for years flying a Raptor. Flying the Huntress was similar to the raptor, and there really was no differences apart from the fact that it was almost three times the size, and that it could afford to get raked by enemy fire a couple of times.

"Done," he replied. I eyed off the co-pilot. He was an Earther, and I was interested in seeing his reaction to the planet if we could get down there, or if we encountered any Cylons. I remember most of them had seemed pretty amazed at the stuff we could do when we first arrived at Earth. We had told them time and time again our capabilities, but it never ceased to amaze them until they saw it themselves. I'm guessing that this Earther would be similar when he saw the first habitable world outside his solar system with his own two eyes.

"Recon Teams, this is Racetrack. Adjust final jump calculations and report readiness checks," I said into the wireless. I heard that all the Raptors and the other two Huntress craft were ready for their jump. "_Astral Dawn_, this is Recon Leader. Report green across the board out here. We're all ready to go," I said into the wireless.

"Recon leader, copy that. We'll be right on your tail. I've been told to make sure that you've got the right jump coordinates this time," I heard the response over the wireless say. I just grinned and beared it, I knew that it was Dualla who was making fun of me.

"Tell Commander Dualla that she's real funny and remind her of who wins pyramid each time," I replied.

"Rodger that, will do. Prepare to jump in two minutes," I heard the response say. Dualla was the commander of the _Astral Dawn_ and we met up as many times as we could. The _Astral Dawn_ was the only capital ship coming on this mission, as it would provide us with more powerful sensors in the area, and hopefully, allow us to be able to spot the Cylons before they know we're there.

Lieutenant Gary Myers – Huntress 003

There were two minutes to jump, and I was kind of excited, but fearful at the same time. I was aboard one of three Huntress class ships which were jumping into the region of space around New Caprica, along with a dozen raptors and the _Astral Dawn_. We were approaching the planet from a distance, so as to have a better chance of detecting any cylon presence in the system or not. I was hoping that it would be 'or not'.

"Recon Team. Mark 20 seconds to jump," I heard Racetrack say over the wireless. I looked to my co-pilot and got ready to hit the FTL button. "Ten seconds to jump," I heard her say. I put my finger over the FTL button and listened to Racetrack count down. "Jump."

Luckily, I managed to not eat before the jump this time, and I emerged from it relatively okay. It took me a couple of seconds to get my bearings, and when I did I immediately checked the DRADIS console. I went to report over the wireless that we'd made the successful jump, but then I remembered that we were under 'radio silence', to help prevent the Cylons from detecting us. It was then that I realised what was out the cockpit – it was all white. I could barely see a thing, and I had no chance of seeing another craft. I looked down to the DRADIS screen again and could see that, so far, we could detect most of the Recon Team, but some looked like they either didn't make it, or were out of range.

"How the hell are we meant to navigate in this," I said to Lieutenant Baudrice, my co-pilot. "They'd told us that it would be bad, but I never expected it to be this bad," I continued.

"We'll manage," she replied. "How are all you doing back there?" she asked into the ships internal communications. We had a number of marines onboard the ship, just in case we found the skies all clear and could land.

"Yeah, we're all in one piece. How's it looking out there?" one of them asked.

"Can't really see much. Looks like everyone made it through though," Baudrice replied. I took the controls and manoeuvred the Huntress so that we were on a heading which should take us directly to the planet. We were relying on the orbit calculations that the Colonials performed based on their knowledge of the planet, for it to be in the right place. If they were off, we'd never come across the planet as it would be somewhere else in the system. I switched the engines off so that we were drifting, adding to our element of surprise.

Dr. Anne Peterson – _Astral Dawn_

We managed to make it through the jump, and from what I could tell, we were in the correct position. I analysed the DRADIS screen immediately after I checked our position and was relieved to see that everyone had made it through alright. We were now drifting towards New Caprica, and hopefully within the next ten minutes we'd be able to see it with our cameras. I was hoping that the calculations as to New Caprica's position in the system was correct, as then everything was still going according to plan. It was my first real mission, and I really wanted it to go off without a hitch.

"Peterson, where's the planet?" Commander Dualla asked.

"Checking that now," I replied. I looked to the gravimetric readout on one of my screens, and was glad to see that according to them, the planet was exactly where we thought it would be.

"DRADIS Contact," I heard someone exclaim. "It looks to be too small to be a raider, but it could be a mine or a meteorite," the DRADIS officer said. Now, I was beginning to worry. I looked at the DRADIS screen and redirected one of the external telescopes so that it would focus in on the object. I could barely make it out on the high resolution telescope, so I created a high contrast negative image, which cleared things up a little bit. I had a quick check on the other electromagnetic radiation wavelengths, and the object seemed to be giving off no irregular emissions.

"It looks to be an irregular shape sir," I said to Commander Dualla. "I can't tell for sure until we get closer, or if we use a DRADIS ping," I replied. A DRADIS ping was an Earth technique which had been applied to Colonial technology. A high burst of energy which the DRADIS used to detect objects was sent out in the general direction of the object, therefore giving a higher reflectance value. The electromagnetic radiation which was sent out from the DRADIS ping would likely penetrate the cloud of the nebulae much, much better.

"Hold that, we don't know what else is out there. A DRADIS ping might give us away. Break radio silence and order one of the Raptors in to take a closer look," Commander Dualla directed. Just a couple of minutes later, we heard a reply from the Raptor's ECO officer.

"_Astral Dawn_. Lieutenant Hasbury. The object is wreckage from a Cylon Basestar. Repeat, the object is wreckage from a Cylon Basestar. There's lots more of it out here too, too much for us to have caused last time we were here," I heard over the _Astral Dawn's _speakers.

Lieutenant Gary Myers – Huntress 003

We all heard the announcement over the wireless that the Raptor that had been sent ahead had found Cylon wreckage, and lots of it. Now, as we finally entered visual range of the planet and the cloud lifted, I understood the sheer magnitude of what was happening here. In front of us, was a complete field of small objects, most likely wreckage, drifting in orbit around the planet known as New Caprica. The images that I'd seen aboard the various ships throughout the fleet didn't compare. In front of me was a large green, blue and white planet which looked so similar to Earth, but so different at the same time. It was then that I noticed, on the main continent, a large portion of it was brown. No vegetation covered it, nothing. I then realised that that was the location of the Colonial's settlement, or what existed of it at the time that most of the Colonials left, anyway.

**Authors Notes 2: Think from now on I might not jump around the characters so much. This is a learning experience for me, writing in first person. The next chapter will be when it all starts to happen. U like? Leave reviews please, even if they're bad. Cheers – Aussie.**


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